Ten Dates review
February 14, 2023 by RSS Feed
Wales Interactive is back with a sequel to one of my favorite FMV titles of theirs. Following up on Five Dates, Ten Dates ups the scope of its choose-your-own dating adventure by offering more dates, more options, and even stepping out the the realm of screen-based interactions and having your dates take place out in the world. In all of these steps forward, Ten Dates retains the charm of the original game, making it a fantastic follow up to a great game.
Find your match
Ten Dates focuses on a pair of friends--a man and a woman--who are both looking to put themselves out there for a romantic relationship. They both serve as supportive commentators throughout the journey, but you also start the game choosing which character to follow and make choices for as they make their way around a speed dating event and line up follow ups with the people they got along with.
For the most part, you are just watching video clips that stitch together each event, though there are times where you're prompted to make certain choices. Do you encourage your date to go on about horrorscopes or do you deflect and change the subject? Do you choose to interject to correct someone about what they said or let it slide? Each of these moments not only helps shape the character you inhabit, but also how each potential romantic partner decides how they ultimately feel about you by the game's end.
Charming chatter
One of the things I praised Five Dates for was its direction and how it was so adept at presenting the awkwardness of meeting new people without being too awkward itself (a rare quality for FMV games). I credited the fact that the game was all screen-based communication for that success, but Ten Dates more-or-less nails the same feel using actors who are playing off of each other in the same scene.
Some of the characters themselves are a little cartoonishly written, particularly in their opening interactions, but the actors portraying them commit in a way that feels genuine and endears you to them. Well, at least most of them. With more options in Ten Dates, there definitely seem some characters that don't hold much appeal at all, but I guess that makes the experience feel a bit more true to life.
Speed dater
With options to play as a man or woman (and even explore same sex relationships), Ten Dates feels like a much more approachable and diverse game than the first. That said, there is definitely still room to grow in the kinds of people and relationship styles it includes.
I get the feeling that including the amount of options and potential partners that Ten Dates was a pretty tricky thing to pull off, though, as each date feels a bit rushed. This makes for a nice title to easily play in a single sitting, but it can also make for situations that feel like they progress or escalate at an unnatural pace.
The bottom line
Overall though, Ten Dates is a quality follow up to a game that I already enjoyed the first iteration of. It's an enjoyable and lightly humorous exploration of the dating world and is full of charm without feeling too cringe or awkward.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/ten-dates-review/
credit : 148apps
Punch Kick Duck review
February 09, 2023 by RSS Feed
In a lot of ways, Punch Kick Duck feels like an arcade game ported to mobile. It follows the classic idea of "easy to learn but hard to master" and applies it to a duck that is trying to fight its way through floor after floor of different animal enemies. There's a certain charm to the way this game looks and feels, but it isn't a game that will really stick with you.
3 button fighter
Punch Kick Duck is a game where you play as a duck who has broken out of a holding cell and must battle their way through rabbits, pigs, ferrets, and more in an attempt to escape. The duck automatically marches forward on a given floor, but you can tap and hold to make the duck run and use virtual buttons on the side of the screen to punch, kick, or duck kick to take down enemies standing in your way.
Each enemy requires a certain kind of attack to defeat it. Waist-high pigs, for example, are easy to kick away, while ferret arms are so high up that you can duck kick them as their punches sail over your head. Everyone (yourself included) can be taken out with a single blow, so the game is an exercise in trying to memorize and manage sequences of attacks that can get you through enemies as quickly as possible without getting hit.
Beware the bear
When you complete a floor in Punch Kick Duck, you get scored for your performance before moving right up to the next one to keep advancing. As you climb higher and higher, fights become more and more complicated as well. Enemies start carrying items to throw at you, try to run you over with carts, and there's even a timer that unleashes a bear to chase you if you are taking too long to get to the next set of stairs.
You don't really get additional advantages to help you deal with all of these complications. Your tools stay the same, and it's just up to you to be able to juggle the combinations of attacks to get through enemies while trying to reach the next floor as quickly as possible. As a bit of a cushion, though, players start with ability to take a free hit that doesn't immediately end a run, which you can re-earn by defeating a certain number of enemies in a level. You also gather coins as you play and can spend 40 of them to revive mid-level if you get knocked down.
Tough but fair
It doesn't take long for Punch Kick Duck to get quite demanding by stacking up loads of enemies coming from different directions with all kinds of special attacks. Dealing with these on their own is tough, but even moreso when considering the bear timer. In true arcade fashion, the only way to overcome these things is to just practice and get better at the game.
If playing in its free-to-play state, your various retries get interrupted by ads, which you can disable via a one-time purchase of $ 1.99. There are also additional characters you can unlock to play as, some of which you can only pay for and add additional perks like a coin doubler or discounts on characters unlockable via in-game currency. Overall, it's a pretty tame and unobtrusive monetization model.
The bottom line
It is really satisfying to chain together a ton of attacks and whip through a level in Punch Kick Duck. Doing so is a tough but fair challenges that rewards persistence and practice. There isn't much more to it than that, but for what it is it is well made and fairly monetized.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/punch-kick-duck-review/
credit : 148apps
Madness/Endless review
February 07, 2023 by RSS Feed
It's not too common these days to see a mobile action game like Madness/Endless. This stealth/action/horror game supplies plenty of challenges using its unique control scheme and isn't shy about being downright devilish in its level design. Not everything Madness/Endlessquite satisfies, but even at its lowest points, the feeling of bouncing around a room at breakneck speeds to kill a room full of enemies feels great just about every time you do it.
Slo-mo slayer
In Madness/Endless, you play as a warrior who wields a sentient blade as they head into dungeons full of creatures so horrific that meeting their gaze instantly drives you mad. While in these dungeons, your character can only shuffle along the wall, though at any point you can dash across the room, killing anything in your path with your blade.
Your goal is to clear out every room by killing every monster in it, and you must do so quickly, as merely being in the presence of these creatures erodes at a sanity meter displayed at the top of your screen. You can gain this sanity back by killing creatures, particularly through chaining combos of dashes together, which is made manageable through a slo-mo mechanic that allows you change your trajectory mid-dash by tapping and holding on the screen.
Story slog
Madness/Endless has a story, and it's about what you'd expect from something featuring "eldritch monstrosities." The world is in a dark place, you can save it, but it's hard to tell who to work with because of your mysterious past and the fact that everyone seems bad. There are two possible endings you can reach by the end of Madness/Endless, though if you're like me reaching one of them feels like more than plenty of game to play through.
This is to say Madness/Endless is quite a long game, though gaging length on a game like is also kind of tough to do. You will die and have to retry levels a lot, and the number of times you have to do that will likely be the main determinant of your playtime. On top of that though, Madness/Endless does this strange thing in its story where it starts dropping hints that you're near the end of the game around its midpoint. Even if this doesn't impact the actual length of Madness/Endless, it made the back half of the game feel super dragged out as I was expecting resolution much earlier than I got it.
Retry till rote
The back-half of Madness/Endless doesn't just feel sloggy because you feel like it should be done quicker, it is also a lot harder to complete quickly. As expected, Madness/Endless ramps up its challenges as you get further into the game, but the ways in which it does are sometimes not entirely fun. Late game enemies, stage designs, and bosses all seem to get to a certain level of challenge where your only hope at making it through them it to die a lot while memorizing level layouts and attack patterns.
I get that this is a kind of challenge some folks may want. I am also not opposed to it in theory, but my problem with it in Madness/Endless comes from its somewhat inconsistent control scheme. While it feels amazing to leap and dash between tons of enemies to rack up a combo, sometimes the tap-to-pause and re-target command doesn't work and you run headlong into spikes or some other hazard. This results in a lot more retrying, to the point that the last few levels of the game I basically had to memorize perfectly and even then would still have to retry a few times because of unpredictable control issues.
The bottom line
By the time I finished Madness/Endless, I wasn't interested in playing through its endless mode or exploring an alternative ending. I was satisfied that I had conquered its challenge despite what felt like occasionally faulty controls. I only stuck it out because--when working--Madness/Endless feels like one of the best action titles you can find on mobile.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/madnessendless-review/
credit : 148apps
Roller Drama review
February 02, 2023 by RSS Feed
When I picked up Roller Drama I was not prepared for exactly how dramatic it would be. This game envisions an alternate or futuristic world that is basically ruled by a megacorp, while you and your housemates are just trying to get by. Any yes, before you think I'm talking about a completely different game, your housemates are all part of a roller derby team that you coach. There's an interesting dynamic at play in Roller Dramabetween interactive fiction and sports management sim, but it feels like a game that never fully realizes its potential.
Rolling start
The first tip that Roller Drama is more than just a sports management sim appears when you start a new game. The first thing that happens is you get hit with a content warning about "cat death," and then said moment involving cat death happens almost immediately. This sets the pace for Roller Drama, which is to say it's a game where a lot of things happen very suddenly and usually before you expect them to.
In any case, these things that can fly up on you include quests like searching for lost roller skates, hiding visitors from your landlord, and more ambitious things that are best left to be discovered as you play through. These moments are broken up with roller derby matches, which play out more like a traditional sports management sim, where you have access to commands to give your team but with the added twists of special powerup cards like bombs that disable defenses and pep talks to juice up your squad between rounds.
Stay on track
Through both the house sequences and the sports competitions, Roller Drama gives the impression that there's a lot of branching paths you can take. But, despite the wide range of dialog choices and league standings that shift after every match, you learn pretty quickly you are on a pretty narrow track to a specific ending. The first time you choose a response to something that isn't in line with Roller Drama's story, time may rewind, or you may simply fail whatever your quest is and be prompted to retry.
Guiding you through these quests is a zombie-like creature from Shakespearean times who provides quippy commentary on your performance and drops hints about how to approach and solve certain scenarios. This creature is the first oddity you see in Roller Drama and certainly isn't the last. I can't emphasize enough how much this game just drops ridiculous things like that into the game as if you already knew about them (hence, why I'm mentioning it again).
Stopping and starting
The abruptness of how Roller Drama builds its world and tells its story never really evens out into a satisfying flow. Just by the time you feel like you have a handle on how to work through both the drama and derby matches, the game ends. You can always go back into the game and see if you can hit certain milestones you didn't in your previous run, but the narrow band of choices makes it feel like the outcomes won't feel all that different.
If you're wondering how this affects the overall game itself, I'd say I'm pretty ambivalent about it. I like the chances the game takes at being weird and not trying very hard to explain itself, and its characters are also charmingly portrayed (though you don't really get a good sense of their personalities). That said, the mechanics of both sets of gameplay segments doesn't feel amazing, and both feel underutilized given the game length and pacing.
The bottom line
Roller Drama is an interesting game to say the least. I kind of enjoyed and definitely respect the way it just drops things on you and expects you to take those things in stride. I wish I could say I enjoyed the actual playing of the experience a little more though, and that it offered some more time in its world before ending.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/roller-drama-review/
credit : 148apps
Devolver Tumble Time review
February 01, 2023 by RSS Feed
Devolver Digital is a publisher that goes out of its way to be somewhat goofy and tongue-in-cheek in virtually every aspect of its business. They have a fake CEO named Fork Parker. They make satirical press conferences for trade shows. They try very, very hard to be funny. Sometimes, they are! Other times, like with the case of Devolver Tumble Time--their brand new free-to-play mobile release--they just make some references to things that you might think are funny purely by being able to recognize them. It also doesn't help that this game makes you play through all of the bad free-to-play stuff that Devolver is supposedly trying to critique, which also isn't very fun.
Time waster
Devolver Tumble Time is very clearly a free-to-play game that is meant to make fun of other free-to-play games. In it, you tap and release on character icons in a virtual tumbler and the more that connect when you pop them the greater the rewards. In each level, you have a goal to reach regarding matching a certain number of icons, which you'll want to complete before time runs out.
It's a very simple game that (perhaps intentionally) feels immediately familiar. There are thousands of games on the App Store that follow this structure. And, like them, Devolver Tumble Time loves to up the challenge by simply asking you to do more in the same amount of time, which inevitably leads to fail states where you can either opt to give up or watch an ad to get 10 seconds added to the clock.
Meta about monetization
Very early on into the game, Devolver Tumble Time gets very transparent about being a game about games. The tutorial character is Fork Parker, Devolver's fictional CEO, and he chimes in about how great it is to watch ads, let you know about games that got canceled due to not fitting an analytical model, and even steals collectibles from you if you end up having to complete a level using a character you haven't gotten from the in-game gacha machine yet.
Speaking of collectibles, there are six in-game currencies, many of which don't really seem to do anything, and as for the characters you unlock, none of them really seem to have meaningful differences between them. It's all just emulating monetization schemes that feel bad to deal with and trying to get a laugh out of presenting you with those things.
Look at this bad thing you now have to play/watch
The gags in Devolver Tumble Time could be funny, but there is one major problem with them: They aren't gags. The game doesn't drop its act of being a free-to-play nightmare. It just is one of those while giving a wink and a nod as if to say "doesn't this suck?" The answer, of course, is yes.
This makes Devolver Tumble Time not really a joke game. It's just acknowledging its bad monetization before asking you for money, and most directly asking specifically for $99.99 to "unlock everything." It doesn't matter if its timers have a low cooldown or the ads aren't real (just one boring, fake one), it's just a bad game. There's no real commentary or hidden layer to what it offers. It just comments on its own bad qualities.
The bottom line
There is nothing of value to be found in Devolver Tumble Time. It presents itself as a joke but it is both repetitive and unfunny. There is no meaningful critique happening either, as it just is the thing it sets out to make fun of, which is a monotonous, overly simple, poorly designed, and brazenly monetized time waster.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/devolver-tumble-time-review/
credit : 148apps
Follow Mid Atlantic Consulting
Subscribe Mid Atlantic Consulting
APP review today